Martin & The New Songrise
End of the World
This song is dedicated to Greta Thunberg, Autumn Peltier and other youths and children that fight a grown-up’s climate battle. It deals with the structural violence committed against people and planet by Big Oil over the past many decades. And it dwells on the fact that those most responsible for perpetuating and proliferating the lies about the harmful consequences of fossil fuels have profited exorbitantly from these lies. While others are left to foot the bill in terms of their own and the planet’s heath. You can stream “End of the World” on all platforms: https://hoybye.lnk.to/end
Where the water was
Artists Martin Høybye and Casper Ace met in central Cape Town at the event “Water & You” organized by the “Future Water Institute” (UCT). Here, they invited the general public to participate in a music video for their song “Where the Water Was.” Each participant lip-synced a line from the lyric to the song which they connected with upon having read the words and listened to the music. “Where The Water Was” sings a story of the impact that the first permanent European settlement at the Western Cape in South Africa had on the indigenous inhabitants, the Khoi and the San peoples.
Freedom Is a State of Mind
This song has a crosscutting theme of space. Both inner space and physical space as in the form of a sanctuary or safe haven. It is about finding and protecting places of refuge both “deep inside” and in the spaces, the commons, still accessible to us. Our oceans, nature reserves, communal gardens – places where we can connect with nature, ourselves and one other, and become mindful of our interdependence. It is also a call to create safe spaces for dialogue where people can speak their truth freely, even when it goes against convenience and convention. And when we choose a state of mind that embraces the freedom of others, we also liberate ourselves.
We Can Change
The chorus to “We Can Change” came almost verbatim from the conversation Lul Omar and Martin Høybye had when they co-wrote the song.
Omar’s own childhood was characterized by neglect and abuse, including being sent to be re-educated in a village in Somalia, which did not end well. Upon returning to Denmark, she since had trouble coping with everyday life.
Her experiences made her feel like she no longer belonged in any culture. But despite this, she believed and believes in the best in people. She is against dishonesty and “acting,” and believes that: “We need to lift each other up. I believe we can change,” as we hear in the chorus to “We Can Change.”
“Dream of the Anthropocene” was written in one sitting but embodied years of readings, ideas and thinking about the climate and biodiversity crises, colonialism, capitalism, and structural violence.
The kind of violence that Rob Nixon has termed “slow violence,” because it happens at a pace where we don’t notice it, and instead it becomes a backdrop, something naturalized, and therefore easily perpetuated.
The song asks a series of questions that have no easy answers, such as “how do we connect, when everything is broken?” and “how do we step up to this challenge of all species?”
These kinds of unanswerable questions, are met with a suggestion. To recognize life: The life in you and I, in the water, earth, and sky. To stop taking without giving, in turn making the world that we all must live in, more balanced, fairer, and cleaner.
This all in a dream, a vision, of a future Anthropocene.
Tiden Der Kommer
We’ve almost forgotten, but Corona hit several people below the belt – including quite a few artists. “Tiden der kommer” (“The Time to Come”) was written by Kirstine Birk and Martin Høybye, during a lockdown when Kirstine, like so many other creative freelancers, was hit hard financially and otherwise.
Fortunately, she was able to channel her energy into creative projects that she normally struggled to find time for, like writing new songs. Including this one with Høybye, who sings on the recording and video.
In the video, Kirstine (right) sings backing vocals with Minna Terp Høybye (left).